A Wolf's Pride Read online

  Chapter Thirteen

  Morning came, as it always did and with it came the meeting that Ryan had been anxious to avoid the night before. The way he had brought Chloe back to the clans wasn’t unheard of, many males had simply plucked their human mates out of the lives they had previously led and brought them back to the clans during the long course of their history. It was the involvement of the authorities and the generally suspicious circumstances surrounding her arrival that were of interest to the people now gathered in one of the estates several meeting rooms. He had called a meeting of the clan heads to tell them about his mate’s heritage. News spread like wild fire within the clans so all those sitting around the large table would eventually find out. He had debated simply telling his close family but had realised that it would be better to get the inevitable confrontations out of the way. If he only told a select few he would have to deal with these people demanding to know why he hadn’t told them personally before they gave him their opinions on the matter.

  Ryan sat beside Chloe, flanked on either side by his family, his father on one side and Sebastian and Erica on the other. For once in his life he wasn’t comforted by their presence. He was unsure of how his family would react to his news especially in light of Erica's experience with the hunters. Nine curious pairs of eyes stared at him questioningly and in that moment he regretted not simply taking the coward’s way out and allowing the clan gossips to disseminate the news, they were after all, famous for their efficiency. Alex and Tobias had yet to arrive and Ryan was beginning to feel anxious. The adept clan grapevine had confirmed that all was well with Alex this morning and yet neither the King nor Queen had arrived. Knowing his cousin he was probably concerned with Alex’s safety and doing his best to confine her to bed. He would fail, he always did but the knowledge had yet to deter him from trying.

  “Ryan, who are these people?” Chloe whispered in his ear, her eyes scanning those gathered as much as he had been doing moments before. “And why are they staring at me?”

  Grateful for the distraction, he turned to answer her questions. “They’re looking at you because you’re the most beautiful woman in the room and they’re wondering what I did to deserve you.”

  Looking around at the several beautiful female faces that littered the large room, Chloe scoffed, “Be serious.”

  “I am love, I am.” His voice was intense, his tone honest and she had to turn away from him. It was confusing trying to decide if he said these things to shock her or if he genuinely meant them. Her kidnapper seemed to delight in confusing her. Ryan sighed, realising that Chloe wouldn’t be responding to his comment, she didn’t know him well enough to understand that he was being honest with her. The five other women in the room were physically attractive he supposed but none held a candle to the woman at his side. “Fine, don’t believe me.”

  “Will you answer my questions now? Who are these people and why are they looking at me? I don’t like being the centre of attention Ryan.”

  “These people are the leaders of the clans that govern our people.”

  “Clans?”

  “Yes, these are the Lords and Ladies of our clans.”

  “Then what are we doing here?”

  “Even if I weren’t the one who called this meeting, I have every right to be here. Your mate is a Lord.”

  “You?” she scoffed disbelieving.

  “Yes, my brother and I are lords of the southern clan as is our father. As he’s technically the one in charge until he decides to retire, I suppose you could call him the high lord, though to my line of thinking he’s been semi retired for the last two decades.”

  “And what about all these other people?” she whispered, her mind cataloguing those around her in case they were willing to aid her in her escape.

  She was beginning to doubt that any one would see what Ryan had done as a crime but it didn’t hurt to plan. When she had woken in this strange place she had pinched herself to confirm that it wasn’t in fact a dream that her mind had concocted, it hadn’t been. Ryan had scolded her for abusing her skin, offering her breakfast which she had refused on principal before dragging her from the room telling her that they were late for a meeting she had no desire to participate in. She had kicked and screamed the entire way and yet none of the multitude of people she had seen along the winding halls had so much as lifted a finger to assist her. One man had asked if she was all right but Ryan had explained the situation to him in such a way that his actions almost seemed reasonable. Her throat raw, she had chosen to remain quiet when he had pulled her into this room but as the silence dragged on she began to feel frantic with the need to break it. She had been surrounded by noise her entire life first, growing up with three boisterous brothers and then choosing to teach as a career and it now appeared that she was physically incapable of leaving a silence unbroken for protracted periods of time.

  “Well you see that woman with the short brown hair, blue eyes?” Chloe nodded. “That’s Lady Amanda, the leader of the Northern clan. We’re sort of related.”

  “Sort of?”

  “Well there’s no blood between us but a relation is still a relation. She married Tobias’ cousin on his father’s side. He’s dead now.”

  Automatic condolences left her lips at his last statement. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be, he deserved to die after what he did.” Ryan shrugged moving on to the man sitting beside Amanda. “The man on her right is Lord Evan of the Eastern clan.” He inclined his head at the dark haired man who smiled as their eyes met, stroking his thick beard thoughtfully as her eyes moved on. “He’s meant to be a nice man, I haven’t spent much time with him so I couldn’t say for sure though. The man on his right is Lord Richard of the South Eastern clan.”

  “What about those two?” Chloe murmured her eyes falling on a small brunette whose hand was entwined with the man at her side. The pair were staring at Erica and Sebastian, the tension between them so thick she could practically feel it in the air. The short haired blonde man seemed to vacilitate between ambivalence and annoyance but the woman was staring at Sebastian with hatred in her hazel eyes though her gaze softened when it landed on Erica.

  “That’s Lord Michael and Lady Anna of the Western clan. He’s a nice man but she’s a spiteful woman who, in my opinion, is out of touch with reality. But that’s a story for another time. Just take my advice and stay away from them. The couple next to them are the Lord and Lady of the South Western clan, Seth and Isabelle.” They will definitely not like what I have to say. They lost one of their sons to the hunter’s madness.

  “And what about those two?” Chloe pressed indicating the last two people who hadn’t been accounted for.

  “They aren’t together Chloe. The woman is Lady Eliza of the North Eastern clan; her mate is supposedly away on business so she came in his place.”

  “Supposedly?” Chloe questioned confused by his words.

  “I say supposedly because I don’t think the man is brave enough to come near Tobias or Alex again. His daughter caused a lot of trouble for them a while back. It all ended in a fight, I trained Alex and she won.” His face glowed with pride. “But then she, Lucinda, literally tried to stab Alex in the back and Jeremiah was the one to plead for her life. Regardless to say they’re not generally welcome around here. Finally we have Lord Nathaniel of the North Western clan, his mate doesn’t like coming to these meetings. She much prefers to tend to the more personal matters of her clan and her family. She’s human like you; there are more of you here than you’d think. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

  “There are a lot of crazy people in the world?” she asked innocently causing Ryan to scowl.

  His attempt to scold her was interrupted by the arrival of Alex and Tobias and he immediately felt anxious. All the clan representatives were present, he would have to explain himself and he didn’t try to delude himself into thinking that this meeting would go smoothly. Alex smiled, taking her seat and judging by the scowl etched on Tobi
as’ face Ryan’s guess as to why it had taken them so long to arrive had been accurate. Tobias’ grey eyes flickered to his mate as he took his seat, assessing her before turning his attention on Ryan.

  “So Ryan, you called this meeting I presume to explain your rash actions.” Ryan nodded in agreement. “So explain.”

  It was obvious Tobias wasn’t in a good mood and Ryan found himself cursing Alex’s stubborn streak. The meeting would have gone badly enough without Tobias’ foul attitude colouring the discussion.

  “Firstly I would like to formally introduce my mate to those of you who haven’t met her, I doubt that any of you haven’t heard of her though. This is Chloe Evans.” He smiled at her, gently squeezing her hand beneath the table. Murmurs of congratulations filled the room and his smile dimmed. I wonder how long it will take for their congratulations to turn to outrage once I tell them what’s going on? “In case you weren’t aware, I forcibly took her from her place of residence and brought her here.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that,” Lord Nathaniel boomed, his green eyes sparkling with merriment. “It’s how my mate and I began our relationship and look at us now. One hundred and fifty years on and we’re still going strong. It’s how the instinct works young lord. On behalf of you and your mate, I wish you two many centuries of happiness.”

  Chloe scowled, Ryan grinned. “Thank you Lord Nathaniel.”

  “If that’s the reason you called this meeting,” Lady Isabelle began. “Then I think we should call it to an end. My pups are probably running amok at home, they are at that age.” She rose from her chair and her mate followed suit but Ryan quickly cut them off.

  “If that were the only thing I had to discuss then I would have allowed the gossips to tell you all of what was going on.” The lord and lady of the South Western clan once again took their seats. “As you may or may not know the authorities were involved. I was arrested.”

  “Don’t worry about that Ryan,” Sebastian said reassuringly. “The files concerning you have conveniently gone missing.”

  “Thanks Sebastian. I guess that just leaves one last thing to discuss. I know that many of you think of me as impulsive, reckless and rash but I wouldn’t have committed to this course of action without reason. I admit that I broke into Chloe’s residence but I wouldn’t have simply taken her then and there without good cause. My plan was simply to see her, leave and arrange a meeting in a more appropriate time and place.” He turned to face her. “I intended to give Chloe a small amount of time to get to know me before I brought her back here.”

  “So what happened?” Amanda demanded, disapproval at his actions written clearly across her face. It was to be expected he supposed. After all that she had gone through with Elijah it was reasonable for her to be suspicious of the high handed actions of males intent on claiming their mates.

  “She woke up,” he sighed. “She saw me and then we began to talk and after what she told me there was no way I could leave her behind with them.” The deep timbre of his voice rumbled through the room as anger flooded him.

  “With who?” Erica inquired curious.

  He couldn’t look at her knowing that the next words he spoke would bring forth painful, unwanted memories. “The hunters.” The room was silent for a moment before it exploded with sound as the leaders threw question after question at him. His attention wasn’t however on them but Chloe, she was beginning to tremble beneath his hand as angry stares and harsh comments were thrown at her.

  “Hush!” Tobias bellowed bringing silence to the room once more. His gaze was intense as he stared at the small woman beside his cousin with new eyes. “Your mate is a hunter and you brought her here?” His gaze flickered back to Alex, resting on the large mound at her stomach. “Are you insane?”

  “Chloe isn’t a hunter Tobias, she’s innocent. You only have to look at her neck to see that. She doesn’t bear the mark.”

  All eyes in the room fell on her and Chloe trembled harder in response. She had wondered why Ryan had insisted she wear the low cut shirt that adorned her body and now she knew. Her neck was clear and exposed to their scrutiny and she was decidedly pleased that there wasn’t even a single blemish against her skin. The wolves that had looked ready to tear her apart moments before were calming.

  “Explain what you meant then Ryan,” Tobias demanded.

  “She isn’t a hunter but her family is. Every single member from what she told me. I met an actual hunter along the way and he confirmed it. Apparently she’s their high commander’s daughter whatever that means to them. Once I found that out, I couldn’t leave her behind and allow them to spread their vile filth to her. They’ve been trying to do so her entire life but she believed they were delusional. I couldn’t take the risk that they would convince her otherwise.”

  “The high commander’s daughter?” Lord Seth mused. “I’m surprised that you’re still in one piece after being in contact with her so long. Has she not tried to put a silver bullet through your head yet?”

  “I don’t even know how to shoot a gun!” Chloe cried indignantly, the response automatically leaving her mouth though as the attention in the room was once again focused on her she wished she had simply stayed silent.

  It was true that her father and brothers had tried to teach her gunmanship when she’d been younger but she had refused the lessons though she was now wishing that she had allowed herself to be swayed by the power of their arguments. The idea of killing something for pleasure had turned her stomach, while she engaged in harmless sibling violence with the occasional punch or kick there was no possibility of death to put her off the idea. She was however regretting failing to listen to her father’s demands that she take self defense lessons. He’d told her that they would come in handy should she ever encounter a werewolf. She’d laughed, dismissing his concerns, telling him that werewolves didn’t exist and all other potential attackers could be deterred effectively with a well aimed shot of pepper spray. How was she to know that a genuine werewolf would break into her home and catch her off guard?

  Lord Seth glared at her and when she realised what she had done, her mouth closed with a resounding snap. She had no business angering werewolves who could probably tear her limb from limb. The Lords and Ladies that had gathered were unknown variables and she had no guarantees from them that they wouldn’t harm her. Ryan won’t let anything happen to me. A rebellious part of her mind whispered, remembering his willingness to put her well being over his own family’s. She barely resisted the urge to groan in response.

  “Lord Ryan,” Amanda called, her voice clear and sharp, easily carrying over the din of clambering voices that filled the room.

  “Yes.”

  “I insist that you take that woman home.” Ryan growled but she continued regardless. “You abducted her, took her away from all she has ever known and want to force her to be your mate. It’s wrong and I’ll not stand for it.”

  “I’m not going to force Chloe into anything,” he snarled, amber filling his eyes at the thought of being separated from her. “I’m not going to let her go. We’re mates, we belong together. In time she will agree with me. I’ll do every thing in my power to see to her happiness how could she not?”

  “I agree with my son,” James inserted. “The circumstances surrounding Chloe’s arrival and her affiliation with the hunters isn’t ideal, but she’s Ryan’s mate. Nothing we do or say will change that.”

  Erica's face had blanched when Ryan had first mentioned the hunters but when her father-in-law repeated Chloe’s link to them, unwelcome memories had been forced to the front of her mind. As the conversation continued to flow around her, images of her time in captivity flashed before her eyes and her body trembled in response.

  “Erica, sweetheart?” Sebastian's voice pulled her away from her painful memories but she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease and fear that now filled her. “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t do this Sebastian,” she whispered before standing from her chair and m
aking a quick escape.

  Sebastian's chair scrapped loudly over the stone floor as he rushed to stand, drawing attention to him and his missing mate. He turned to his brother easily identifying the look in Ryan’s gaze as a plea for acceptance. “Despite all that her family have done, she’s my brother’s mate, I’ll not stand for them to be separated. Welcome to the family Chloe.” With that he left, following in Erica's footsteps as he sought to find his mate.

  Ryan breathed a sigh of relief at the acceptance and support his family had given him, the other clan leaders he wouldn’t have to deal with on a daily basis, their opinions mattered very little to him especially when they were trying to separate him from Chloe.

  Anna spoke and Ryan’s body tensed in preparation for the unpleasantness that would undoubtedly spill from her mouth. She had once tried to send Sebastian to his death because of something that no member of their family could have prevented. Her two brothers had been killed by hunters while he, Sebastian and their father had lived. Her warped mind had somehow laid the blame for their deaths at the feet of the Lords of the Southern clan and she acted accordingly. “After all that they’ve done,” Anna began. “We shouldn’t show her any mercy. The hunters have broken many families; it’s only fair that we do the same to them. If this high commander position is one of importance then it makes even more sense to dispose of her.”

  “If you think to harm my mate then you invite your own end. Any who try to touch her should expect my retribution. It will be quick but painful. You in particular,” he snarled at Anna, “should stay away from her. I don’t want you to even breath the same air as her.”

  From where he sat, Tobias could see the situation was rapidly getting out of hand. “Nobody is suggesting that we hurt Chloe let alone kill her Ryan.” His voice was calm as he tried to calm his cousin but he was well aware that Ryan’s anger was justified, if someone had said something similar in regards to Alex, he would have had them executed.